StackOverflow Is Having Issues • Hacker News Board

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#31

Post by xwowsersx » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:39 PM UTC

trollied wrote: post #28

alex_sf wrote: post #25

I know it's the tacky thing to say, but: I feel like StackOverflow has gotten worse over the past couple years. The questions and answers are both lower quality. It's possible that Google is leading me astray since that's typically how I'll find Q&As on there, but I don't see the same issue on the other sites in the Stack network.

Their best engineer went to work for Microsoft https://nickcraver.com/ As did their SRE SQL Server DBA. I don't know if their replacements are up to speed.

How does that lead to lower quality questions and answers?

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#32

Post by stephendause » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:40 PM UTC

trollied wrote: post #28

alex_sf wrote: post #25

I know it's the tacky thing to say, but: I feel like StackOverflow has gotten worse over the past couple years. The questions and answers are both lower quality. It's possible that Google is leading me astray since that's typically how I'll find Q&As on there, but I don't see the same issue on the other sites in the Stack network.

Their best engineer went to work for Microsoft https://nickcraver.com/ As did their SRE SQL Server DBA. I don't know if their replacements are up to speed.

Maybe, but I don't know see an obvious causal link between that and the quality of the answers and questions.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#33

Post by simion314 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:50 PM UTC

glmdev wrote: post #29

simion314 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today I had an issue and I also had a solution in mind, but I still used SO to find alternative solutions, in the end others had same workaround solution as me but sould have been great for my case if the workaround was not needed. IMO "use the documentation" is not enough, many times you have much more complex question or bugs/problems where if lucky other individuals hit them before you and were kind enough to shar…

system-d private tmp has entered the chat

Not sure if apache or systemd are to blame, or security extremists, but I hate this kind of magic, please crash my app with a clear message instead of doing shit behind my back and showing me fake reality.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#34

Post by Helmut10001 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

alex_sf wrote: post #25

I know it's the tacky thing to say, but: I feel like StackOverflow has gotten worse over the past couple years. The questions and answers are both lower quality. It's possible that Google is leading me astray since that's typically how I'll find Q&As on there, but I don't see the same issue on the other sites in the Stack network.

I find that Github is becoming a better place for more focused questions, mostly in issues, sometimes in the new discussion feature.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#35

Post by shagie » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:52 PM UTC

stephendause wrote: post #32

trollied wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their best engineer went to work for Microsoft https://nickcraver.com/ As did their SRE SQL Server DBA. I don't know if their replacements are up to speed.

Maybe, but I don't know see an obvious causal link between that and the quality of the answers and questions.

The user experience of the people in the 1% (the 90-9-1 rule - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule ) is diminishing. Existing systems showing their age and failing to scale, processes and norms that work in tandem between technology and people are straining as times change.

In these cases, the technology needs to keep pace with the systems (both computer systems and people systems) that it supports. Failure to do that means that the people who are creating content are having to expend more effort to make up for it.

Be it people leaving, or needing to spend more effort to attain the same quality - the result is the same. The quality of the site (questions and answers) is diminishing as people are less able to provide good answers and curate existing material to make good content more visible.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#36

Post by samjbobb » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

spyremeown wrote: post #7

On that note: has anyone ever tried to archive SO?

Kiwix is what you want.

I keep offline copies of Wikipedia and the major StackOverflow sites.

https://www.kiwix.org/en/

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#37

Post by DoingIsLearning » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

alex_sf wrote: post #25

I know it's the tacky thing to say, but: I feel like StackOverflow has gotten worse over the past couple years. The questions and answers are both lower quality. It's possible that Google is leading me astray since that's typically how I'll find Q&As on there, but I don't see the same issue on the other sites in the Stack network.

One factor you can't discount is that we are also getting older and so are more capable of challenging both answers and question quality.

I am not sure if SO is less useful or just has become less useful _for_me_ over time.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#38

Post by trollied » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:57 PM UTC

Kwpolska wrote: post #30

trollied wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their best engineer went to work for Microsoft https://nickcraver.com/ As did their SRE SQL Server DBA. I don't know if their replacements are up to speed.

Stack Overflow’s engineers aren’t writing the questions and the answers. How is your comment related?

I'm an idiot and didn't read past the first sentence.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#39

Post by marcosdumay » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 3:04 PM UTC

therusskiy wrote: post #11

many people jokingly say that their work stops if StackOverflow is down. Surprisingly I barely use SO, I refer to docs and Github source code and issues much more often.

I bet you don't work mainly in C# or Javascript. (Or, well, Javascript SO has been downhill for a while, so maybe it's time to take it out of this list. I wouldn't know.)

On some stacks, you depend on SO for everything. Others have much more complete and usable documentation somewhere else that answers any question that SO would accept, so people don't need it at all.

Re: StackOverflow Is Having Issues

#40

Post by applefangirl » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 3:09 PM UTC

_Algernon_ wrote: post #26

applefangirl wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I've downloaded most of the documentation I need to answer day to day questions, and try to limit my use of search engines. Finding most of my answers is faster in the local references I'm familiar. The Internet is my last resort.

Can I ask you what workflow you use for this? Any particular tools? What do you do for documentation that doesn't provide a download?

I use Dash on my Mac for most of the documentation. It makes searching any of the "docsets" it has indexed fast. I've recently started creating some of my own.

I save references I use a lot, like the HTML spec, as PDFs. MacOS indexes these PDF files, so a search in Finder is usually all I need to bring the correct document.

If I can't find a reference locally, or know it doesn't exist locally, I'll turn to the Internet. Once I find the bit of information I'm looking for I'll either save the website as a PDF, or save the info in Snippetlabs or Bear so I can search for it next time I need it.